


Mail's Here

by siba



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, Mail Man Erwin, Snowball the cat - Freeform, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 16:42:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9080914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siba/pseuds/siba
Summary: For years on end, Merfolk have lived among humans as seemingly normal people. Levi being one of them. For the longest time, he has just tried to make his way though life by keeping to a simple daily routine that keeps him as far away from water outside of his home as possible. But this daily routine is royally messed up when the new Mailman, Erwin Smith, comes into the picture and learns something about Levi that he never wanted to be known.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Sayloni! This is part one of your birthday week (Even though your birthday is today, Dec. 27). I hope you enjoy our little AU come to life!

It is often said that Mythology is a reflection of real life, that the legends of old were often reflective of the natural anomalies that occurred and baffled both scientist and sailor alike. Even some of the most accredited scientists of their time understood that there were things going on in the world that they could not explain. Subsequently they created these fantastic beasts and legends, those that would explain to the public why things were occurring as they struggled to figure out the truth in reality. But after time, these legends became less of the truth and more of a scary story that parents told to their children before bed in order to make them sleep. The legends lost their power and their credibility as science took hold and the empirical way of explaining things was now the forefront of logic rather than the observations of sailors and travellers. No longer were the stories of sirens and mermaids considered to be real. They were disproven by the fact that no one could see them, therefore they did not exist. Then some years later, it was discovered that one sailor had been speaking of a manatee in a drunken stupor. Forever more was the myth of the mermaid put to rest, considered to be a creature of the olden days and nothing but a fun story to tell tourists by the coasts.  
That was probably best for the mermaid community and subsequently, every member of such that had assimilated during what they called the ‘time of kings’ or the ‘time of empires’. They had conveniently blended into the human population, silent and unseen in every manner except for their contact with the water that made their natural state reveal itself. A tail would sprout from their once freed legs, debilitating their movement for a dependent amount of time. It all depended on how much water had come to soak them and make their life that much more difficult, most especially for those who didn’t want to be known to the outside world and had been among the subsequent generations to assimilate into the human culture. During the time of kings, mermaids and men had been hunted for their brightly colored scales. Their fins turned into prizes for the rich and powerful, worth more than all of the jewels and gold in the king’s treasury. To have one, was to be the most elite in the world. It granted membership to a cruel club that was based on the torture and murder of thousands of merfolk, across the world. It was a sport until the merfolk began to fight back by luring sailors to their death with their voices. From then on, there was a fear of these merpeople and their supposed mystical powers. But that wasn’t enough to stop the mass genocide.

  
It was under the reign of King Henry VIII, the most ruthless of all of the monarchs to pursue and attack the merfolk, in which there was a decision had to be made. All of the tribes of merfolk across the world gathered together for the first and last time and brought forth the issues of the mass genocide against their people. It was then decided that they would let go of their natural forms, and take upon the form of human in order to live through the mass murders and torture against the community. The plan was that once the royals and the elites discovered that there were no more mermaids, they would stop poisoning the waters and stop their trivial pursuit of these merfolk. Then, would the people be able to return to their homes in the ocean, living peacefully amongst the waves and away from the filth of human society. But after the death of King Henry VII and the halt of the merfolk, the merpeople were already so integrated into their communities that they had created amongst the humans that many found it difficult to go back to their homes. While some returned to the sea, some didn’t feel that they would be happy in the sea and new generations sprouted amongst these new communities that knew nothing of the sea. From then on, the merfolk lived amongst humans. They lived, worked, ate, fell in love and mated with humans, but always were their children merfolk. They would be born in the water and would forever live in fear of getting wet in front of those they didn’t trust. That was how Levi came up.

  
Levi was the son of a prostitute in Paris, France who was a mermaid through and through. Unlike many of her other counterparts in Paris, the merfolk who had lived in the human culture for generations, she had grown and lived in the English channel for most of her life. When she arrived in Paris as a teen, she knew nothing of French and of their ways. So the underground community of merfolk took her in and taught her how to live as a human. Although, when Kuchel found that she was pregnant with a child she could no longer turn to her community in Paris. They shunned her for her profession and cast her and her unborn child away. Levi recalled stories that she told him when he was a small boy and they would go swim in the ocean in the early morning hours, she had come to America to give him a better life and to find a new community and teach him the ways that she too had been brought up in. She wanted nothing more than for Levi to learn about the people in which he came from in the English channel. Up until the day she died, she taught Levi all that she knew.  
For a while, Levi lived with his Uncle Kenny. Supposedly the guy was a merman too but Levi didn’t see him transform, up until the day he disappeared and left Levi on his own on his eighteenth birthday. Ever since, Levi had been making his own way through life without the help of anyone else. It was easier that way. To avoid any casualties in which he accidentally revealed his natural form, he worked from home as a insurance agent. That was a decent enough job that he didn’t really ever need to do anything else; he did surveys on occasion for some extra spending cash, but for the most part he had a comfortable living from his small home. The only necessary thing that he had to do outside of his home, was go to a specialist in merfolk medicine every once in awhile. Doctor Zoe was another mermaid, from a tribe in the bay of Mexico where she learned all of the traditional medicinal practices of their people. She was formally educated in Human medicine and marine biology so she was more than qualified to do Levi’s checkups every six to eight months to make sure that he was healthy and doing well. She was always more than talkative whenever he went to visit her in her office some thirty minutes away. She always asked whether Levi was going to return to his mother’s tribe and the answer was always the same, most definitely not. He had a comfortable living and liked what he did for the most part. He hated the majority of people anyways because they were all selfish assholes so he didn’t mind so much that he was alone most of his days. He had his ugly-ass hairless cat named Snowball to keep him company whenever he was lonely or missed the ocean. It was hard for him to go to the ocean and make it back to his house before someone could see him or pick up on the evidence left behind. It was pretty damn obvious when there was a giant fish-man crawling up the sand at most points in the day and it was even worse when he’d have to hide out in his car and wait for his body to dry out enough that he would regain his legs.

  
Life was hard sometimes, especially when it decided to rain for ten fucking days straight and sprinkle every other time for the next two weeks. But it was nothing that Levi couldn’t handle for the most part. He would just bury himself in work, wait for his online groceries and mail to be delivered and then continue on with his day. There was an unspoken system between the delivery people and Levi. They would leave whatever the box or package was at the door, ring the doorbell so that he knew it was mail, and then get the fuck away from his house. Never did he see a delivery person and he didn’t really want to because that would involve talking to people and making the worst possible small talk in existence. There was only so much he could say about the fucking weather. During that time of the year when it rained every fucking day, Levi couldn’t go get the package or his mail until it had stopped raining. He was entirely sure that it was probably creepy as fuck for him to be sitting in his window, staring out at the yard for seemingly no particular reason. At least that kept the nosy ass neighbors away because they thought he was a creep, staring into his yard whenever it rained. Really he was just dreading the moment he would have to run outside onto his front porch, just as the rain stopped, so that he could get his damn mail. Even though the mailbox was attached to the front of his house and was quite literally next to his front door, Levi didn’t want to risk revealing himself or having to haul his fish ass inside of his house.

  
For the most part, life was going swell. Work was easy enough and he had minimal contact with all of his clients through telephone or video chatting services although those encounters were rare. Every day he would wake up at eight am, run on his treadmill inside, take a bath, make himself breakfast and begin work until two in the afternoon. He would have lunch, wait for the mail, which always arrived at three on the dot, and then head back to work until he called it quits around seven pm. On weekends, he would clean his house thoroughly, making sure that Snowball hadn’t shit in the wrong place again. If he needed anything he couldn’t get online, he would bundle up inasmuch waterproof clothing as he could, no matter the temperature, and head out to buy it as quickly as possible. To others, it was the weirdest thing to see some short man bundled up in a rain jacket when it was ninety degrees outside and sunny, like Levi gave a single fuck what others thought. He didn’t want to risk changing in the middle of the fucking supermarket or in the pet store, buying Snowball a sweater or a costume for Halloween. He was always a cheeky shit and bought her a fish costume for Halloween so that they could match as he sat in his bath tub, soaking in the home made mixture of salt water and occasionally scented oils to keep his tail soft and hydrated. It was the easiest way to avoid trick-or-treaters.

  
The routine Levi had was perfect, everything he could have ever wanted was included in it and was planned out a week in advance at all times. That is, until one Monday afternoon delivery fucked up his entire schedule. It was a nice, sunny day with minimal clouds and a nice breeze off of the ocean, not that Levi could really feel it besides when he opened a window on occasion in his office to let in some fresh air. He went through the motions, waking up, working out, making himself breakfast, taking his daily bath and oiling down his tail for the week, hauling his ass out of the bathtub and down the trail of towels that lead down the hall and to his bedroom, he had laid out before his bath thankfully. After the escapade that was taking a damn bath, Levi dried himself off and got to work on dressing himself and going about the rest of his day with legs once more. As per usual, he stopped for lunch around two and waited for the mail. But the fucker didn’t show up at three, or four, or even four thirty. Apparently the fuck felt the need to come at five eleven in the afternoon, ringing the doorbell as Levi was in the middle of work. He ignored it and opted to continue working, after all they would just end up leaving the mail in his mailbox. Several seconds later, there was a second ring on his doorbell, then another directly after. Levi stopped typing and let out a frustrated sigh as he stares at the computer screen before him with a scowl, could the guy really not get the fucking idea to just leave the mail in his damn mailbox? He’d been doing this long enough, hadn’t he? So with a grunt and the attitude that he was going to kill someone, Levi stalked his way towards the front door. When he unlocked it and pulled it open with an unusual ferocity and irritation, he expected to see the half dead bloke he had been receiving his mail from for years. Instead, he was greeted with a youthful smile and a handsome man that he couldn’t even begin to yell at. The guy seemed to be everything that Levi wasn’t, tall, muscular, blonde with brilliant blue eyes that only seemed to shine that much brighter because of the smile making his lips turn up. To be mad at this guy was as bad as being mad at a puppy for being excited to see him, but it had to be done.

  
“What?” Levi says in a tone all too harsh, he really hadn’t meant for it to come out that hostile but this giant puppy of a man had single-handedly fucked up his entire schedule for the day. That wasn’t something Levi was all too pleased about. If the man noticed any hostility in Levi’s tone, which he was sure the man had to, his smile didn’t fade nor did his eager attitude. “I’m sorry to bother you-” So the fucker did notice, “-but I wanted to introduce myself, my name is Erwin. I’m your new mailman.” He says as he holds out his hand as if this was a proper business meeting, he seemed like the kind of straight laced guy that annoyed the fuck out of him. But instead of blow the new guy off, Levi shakes the dumb puppy’s hand and nods, “Levi Ackerman.” He swore he’d never seen a man more excited about his damn job as a mailman. His cheery attitude was even making Levi’s grumpiness fade away until he couldn’t remember why he had opened the door in a huff. “Yea I know I kind of have your mail-” This guy must have been an awkward middle schooler because even now, Levi wanted to roll his eyes at the man before him offering him a sheepish smile and holding out his mail as if it was the most precious thing ever. “Thanks.” Levi says, taking the rubber band bound letters and papers that ranged from everything from work business to some bill for a magazine he was going to start getting sooner or later.

  
He was panning through his mail, looking over the different notices for bills due soon and the various other things he had received for work, when he heard the puppy dog of a man clear his throat and nod. “You’re my last stop for the night. So I guess I’ll be going and leave you to your mail for the evening. Have a wonderful night Mr. Ackerman.” Honestly Levi was in the middle of reading through one of his work statements, so all he really did in return was nod towards the shape of the large ass mailman and mutter a soft “Yea see you” Before he was closing the door and heading back inside to finish the rest of his damn night on schedule. He finished his work for the night, made himself dinner with his delivered groceries that came without a hitch, at least that fucking delivery man didn’t want to engage Levi in a conversation. Despite his hostility towards the attractive mailman for ruining his schedule, Levi couldn’t stop himself from thinking about the mailman, his bright smile and the way that he looked genuinely excited about doing his job. Levi envied him for that, he didn’t mind his job so much but he wished he could do something that he loved without having to fear for his safety. The more he thought about it, that would require he find something he loved doing more than buying Snowball sweaters and making her wear ironic costumes because she looked pissed off whenever he put them on her. He supposed he was kind of an asshole like that.  
Levi spent dinner on his couch, his chicken stir fry in his hands, his laptop on his lap, and the TV on for background noise. It was an odd set up, especially with Snowball resting on the back of the couch and nearly laying on his shoulders, sporting her new cardigan he’d bought a few days ago. But it was comfortable and that was all he really cared about as he went about ordering his groceries for the next week and searching through amazon for something interesting. He found a no spill athletic water bottle that looked interesting enough for him to buy, his later water bottle had caused quite the accident with him on the treadmill nearly a week before. He didn’t know before then that treadmills could cause roadrash on mermen scales, but of course it would be him who found out the hard way. There were a few other things that were worth his time investigating, a new pot for the plants in his office, a lamp to replace the one that Snowball had broken a week prior when she decided to throw a fit, all minor things that Levi ordered or saved in his cart for later. He decided to take another bath that night, he thought he deserved so much so that he could relax and destress after a day that made him far more tense than he should be for a monday. After the dishes were washed, everything was put away and all of things were ordered on Amazon, Levi let out his towels on the floor so that way he could drag his sorry ass back to his bedroom afterwards. He made his bath relatively warm, complete with scented salts and some oils so to keep his skin and tail healthy. He didn’t do the whole candlelit bath charade anymore, after nearly burning down his house and getting a shit ton of wax everywhere, he decided never to try that part again. All he did, was lay back in the bath and enjoy the familiar prickle of his scales returning. When he opened his eyes again, before him was his silver tail beginning at his lower abdomen and extending past the end of his extra long tub. It was nearly four and a half feet on it’s own, making him just a bit taller than he normally was from the tip of his fin to the top of his head. Depending on the tribe in which the merfolk DNA was from, determined the tail that the merperson had. Levi’s own tail was a lot like that of a dolphin tail, solid except for the shining end. The thin membrane on the end of his tail extended barely past fin, acting like a translucent border that would glitter and shine in the presence of light. His mother had told him once that it was a signal for other merfolk to find him, if he ever returned to the sea. There were small slits on each side of his waist as well, those that were also lined with this silver membrane that acted as gills when he was in the water, giving him the advantage of being able to breath using those and his human lungs. There was also a slit on the front of his waist, one hidden carefully by a flap of skin that wasn't marked, that was probably best because the last thing Levi would want is for his junk to be bedazzled and sparkling on the outside. He had enough problems as there was when Doctor Zoe tried to pry it open and make sure that he was healthy in every single fucking spot that she could; then again part of Levi thought that the brunette fuck was just trying to torture him.

  
A solid hour was spent in that bath, relaxing in the salty warm water and letting the little ripples from the occasional movement of his hand, brush over his scales and tail when he readjusted himself so that his tail would be in the water. As per the usual, he drained the tub, waited a few extra minutes for some more of the water to drip off of himself before he used the edge of the tub to haul up his upper body and slide out of the tub onto the towels. From there it was the task of dragging himself down his hallway on towels to his bedroom as he did every morning when he went to bathe. It was nothing new, but it was still tiresome hauling himself everywhere until he was dry and could head back to clean up his mess very carefully, lest he touch the water again and end up a fucking merman in the middle of his hallway. When the long-ass process of cleaning up his mess from the bath was over, he settled down for the night with Snowball at the foot of his bed in her new sweater.

  
The following day was the same routine as the last, the monotony brought him comfort as he ran in the morning and fed Snowball before making himself some breakfast of eggs and tea. He went through his daily process, Snowball always following behind a few minutes later because Levi was also her only form of entertainment besides a small stuffed mouse under his bed. It was peaceful this way, when he knew everything had a time and a place. It was nice. Up until five pm that was, when he heard a knock on his front door, it was probably that puppy dog of a mailman again. He let it go as he continued to type, looking over this insurance quote he had for a new customer. But the knock sounded once more, then again shortly after and by that time Levi was already to the door with a scowl on his face. Yet the moment he opened the door, this fuck looked as cheery as ever, despite the fact that it was clearly the end of his shift and it was hot as balls out that day. His cheeks were a fair pink and it looked like the front part of his blonde locks were damp. For any other person Levi would have said it was disgusting, while it was rather gross on this man as well, even this look didn’t appear as disgusting on the mailman like it did for most others.

  
“Good afternoon Mr. Ackerman, I have your mail for the day-” No shit, what was he expecting to bring Levi, a fucking cake? “Yea thanks, next time just leave it in the mailbox.” He really didn’t mean to sound as rude as he was coming off as, but yet again this fucker had single handedly managed to turn a stress free day into something that shouldn’t be so worrisome. He did have to hand it to the guy that was rather impressive, usually the first time around these people get the idea that Levi doesn’t want to see anyone. “I would have Mr. Ackerman, but I need you to sign something to verify that you recieved your mail this evening. It’s a new policy by the Federal Postal Service.” With that, the tall blonde holds out a piece of paper, produced from his back pocket with numerous other signatures on it that he assumed was the paper he was supposed to sign. Levi didn’t even have time to produce the excuse that he didn’t have a pen because just seconds later, the mailman was holding out a pen with the paper. He snatched the pen and paper away, scowling at the flimsy ass paper that was causing his afternoon so much trouble as he scrawls his chicken scratch name onto the bottom of the paper. “Will this be an everyday thing?” Levi holds the paper back out towards the blonde, and in return he holds out Levi’s mail. Through all of this, he still had a warm smile on his lips and looked even better sweaty than he had before. Fucker.

  
“I’m afraid so Mr. Ackerman. Although I’ll usually come around this time and if you’re not here when I stop by I’ll bring back the mail to the nearest post office so you can pick it up.” Once more does he tuck the piece of paper in his back pocket, placing the pen in the pocket on the front of his baby blue shirt that was embellished with the various badges of the Postal Department and his nametag on the right side, Erwin Smith. “Alright, well I’ll be here.” Levi was about to say his goodbye’s and close the fucking door so he could get back to work, when he heard a familiar bell jingling behind him, apparently his shitty cat wanted to come say hello to the attractive mailman as well. “Snowball, the fuck-” He mumbles as he watches her strut forward in her new sweater, complete with the hood up around her head that included holes for her ears despite the fact that it was hot as hell outside. She had nearly clawed the shit out of Levi when he tried to get her in that sweater but apparently now the indecisive asshole liked it, or at least liked showing it off to the mailman who she was rubbing against and purring.

  
“How cute-” The Smith man kneels down, flexing those strong calves hidden by his dark navy shorts and moving to gently pet the attention seeking asshole by his feet. If anything, Levi had expected him to say that this abomination in a sweater was absolutely repulsive and that she looked like a walking penis with a sweater on. Whenever they weren’t getting along, that’s what he called her. “What’s its name?” Levi had to blink himself out of his thoughts so that he could find his tongue and the will to respond instead of just staring at the Smith man and his cat like a fucking idiot. “Snowball. She’s an asshole.” He didn’t know why that last part was entirely necessary, he was sure that he looked bat shit crazy at this point because he never left his house and had an ugly ass cat wearing ugly ass sweaters, a cat whom he just called an asshole for no reason. Great. Apparently that was funny to the crazy-ass mailman though because he laughed and for the first time did it sound like church bells. It was well rounded, low in all of the right places and combined with that smile, it was a wonder why Levi didn’t see some sort of ring on his hands. This Smith guy was still a fucker though, he’d messed up one too many days and yet Levi couldn’t get himself to care in this moment. “Well, I’ll take your word for it. She’s quite the purring machine with this sweater of hers.” Both Snowball and the Smith guy looked as if they had found utter bliss, and here Levi was staring like an idiot at a man pet his ugly ass cat on his front porch.

  
“She gets cold and sick and I’d rather not have cat vomit all over my fucking house-” Fuck, why the fuck couldn’t he stop saying fuck? Again, there went this mailman chuckling at Levi’s words, as if he had said the best joke in existence about his cat and her sweaters rather than spilling out everything that he probably didn’t want to know. “I can’t blame you, I have two at home who are the same way when winter rolls around.” It was bad enough for Levi to have one asshole of a cat, but to have two would be absolutely disastrous. He’d probably go insane buying all of those sweaters and ignoring their heated glares whenever he gave them their food a whole two minutes late. “Couldn’t stop at one?” He leaned against the doorframe of his front door, continuing to watch Snowball as she weaved through the guy's’ legs and tried to bat at his bag now empty of papers and mail. He laughed as he watched her play around and try to climb in the bag. The Smith guy even helped Snowball in the bag by holding open the entrance of the dark blue messenger bag. “Well, I had one and then an ex decided to get a second. When we broke up, he left Sinna behind with Rose and I.” It wasn’t a big deal that the guy had mentioned his ex left behind his cat, what was a big deal about the statement was that this guy had said He; meaning he’d had an ex boyfriend. Therefore, he was something other than straight. The guy was still a fucker, but it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only non-heterosexual around. He would deny to the day that he died that knowing this Smith guy wasn’t straight made him a little more excited to see him every day.

  
“What a shithead, at least you got the cat in the divorce.” It was supposed to be a compliment, but it just sounded like an accusation. It had been a long fucking time since he’d had a conversation with someone other than his doctor more than two sentences long. “Yea, although she’s not as cuddly as Snowball is-” The blonde was smiling at where Snowball was sitting in his bag, her head poking out of the top and looking up at Levi with a gaze that must of been mocking him because she looked far too smug for her own good in that damn bag beside the mailman. Levi rolls his eyes, giving Snowball a blank stare until she decided that the bag wasn’t the most exciting thing to be doing and jumped out, only to head back inside of the house and towards the stairs. She was probably going to make herself comfortable on the end of Levi’s bed until he kicked her off before sleeping. “Well, I don’t want to keep you from your evening too long Mr. Ackerman. Have a wonderful evening.” When Levi looked away from Snowball heading up the stairs, he found that Smith had already stood up and was now giving Levi all of his attention instead of the dumb cat, which included that shining smile and the look as if Levi had given him enough happiness somehow to last the man’s entire lifetime. He couldn’t find his tongue until the man was already walking back towards that tacky mail truck, square and mostly white save for the postal service stamp on the side, “You too-” He mumbles a bit too late for the mailman was already beginning to get into that tacky truck and turn on the Air conditioning. He ran a hand through his hair and cast one more glance towards Levi standing in his doorway, watching him like the creep his neighbors thought him to be. What really got to Levi though, was the fact that the smiled once again upon seeing Levi still standing there, mail in hand. What else does the fucker do but wave another goodbye before driving away, back down the street so that he could head back to the post office. At first, he remained in his doorframe, staring at the mail in his hand and thinking over that entire situation that seemed to last years starting at the moment he was dragged away from work to then. It baffled him that such a man would be so excited about some dumb naked cat in a sweater, or that he would smile towards Levi like that. From everyone else, all he got were sidelong glares and the tail end of whispers that he was the weird guy on the block; as if he hadn’t already known.

  
He could worry about this later, for the time being Levi pushed all of that bullshit and thoughts of the cute mailman from his mind as he went back inside to look through the mail and finish up his work for the night. The rest of his work went by without a hitch, it was just finishing up that quote and sending it via email to his new client. After which he went about making himself dinner and ordering some more things from Amazon, small things like cat food and another tub of lavender scented salt for his baths. He spent some time watching the news, the weather report on how it was going to rain starting that next week and how crime in the city had seemed to be going down. He fell asleep shortly after the crime report and didn’t bother waking up until his alarm went off once more in the morning. It was his signal for another day of monotony and work.  
The rest of the day was seemingly normal, workout, breakfast, change Snowball’s sweater to one a bit more festive for the upcoming Halloween season, and get to work. Just as Erwin had promised the day before, he stopped by Levi’s house at five in the afternoon on the dot, except this time Levi was sitting in his window, waiting for the blonde to come by with his mail that way he could sign that stupid paper and get it over quickly. Less time spent with the mailman was more time he could be working and or doing his laundry, it was laundry day already. But when Smith stopped by, in that tacky ass truck and his navy blue messenger bag on his hip, he didn’t come to the door immediately. Instead, he walked around the back of the truck and jumped in the back, seeming to rummage around for a few good minutes until he came out with several boxes in his arms. Levi had completely forgotten that he had ordered some things on Monday, thus they would be coming then. It was nice to know he could now drink water on his treadmill since that was one of the things being delivered, based on the smallest box which Erwin was carrying on top of the other two. By the time Erwin actually got to Levi’s door, the short man was already standing there with the door open and his arms crossed over his chest.  
“It seems you have some things to look forward to opening today-” Smith says, stepping up on the three steps that lead to Levi’s porch. Even though he couldn’t see it past the boxes in Erwin’s arms, he knew that bastard was wearing that bright smile of his. His assumption was only confirmed when Erwin put the boxes down right in front of the shorter man so that he could grab the mail from his messenger. Once again, was it tied together with a rubber band and was placed on top of the stack of boxes while Erwin’s other hand held out that piece of paper for Levi to sign or some shit. “Yea, just a water bottle and some stuff.” Levi bends forward so that he could sign the paper on the top most of the boxes, at least it made his signature a little less horrible to have it done on a hard and flat surface. “I hope you enjoy your water bottle and stuff then Mr. Ackerman.” The blonde takes the paper held out to him, once again sticking the pen in the front pocket of his shirt and the signature paper in his back pocket so that he was free to smile towards Levi. What a fucker, how the hell did he enjoy this job so much?

  
“Have a wonderful evening Mister Ackerman.” Again, Levi was too wrapped up in overanalyzing everything about this guy that he didn’t realize that he’d begun to walk away. This time, he was determined to not make such an ass of himself, “You too. And hey Smith-” Fuck, he probably should have called him something nicer or more polite, “..call me Levi. Mr. Ackerman makes me feel old as fuck.” The blonde laughs from where he had stopped on Levi’s walkway from the street to his front door, with the late afternoon shining on him in just the right light, he looked fantastic like this. “Of course, Levi. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He didn’t stick around to stare awkwardly at Erwin this time, he figured once a week was creepy enough. Instead, he focused his attention on dragging the boxes and his mail inside while the mailman got in his truck once again and drove away. He didn’t bother looking to see if Erwin had waved either, if he did he was sure that someone would have found his body as a pile of ashes because he self-combusted.

  
As it turns out, he received his lamp, the new pot for his plants and his water bottle with a complimentary sweat sleeve. As soon as all of the boxes were broken down and put in the recycling, Levi went about to setting up the new lamp in his bedroom on his bed side table. He hid the new planter in his office, closing the door so that Snowball and her petty ass couldn’t go in there and break it when he wasn’t looking. The rest of the night was the same as it always was, a bath, watching TV, eating, and curling up under his blankets for yet another night of restful sleep in which he could forget about the way that blonde smiled at him all the damn time. Like those first few days, the rest of the week followed an eerily similar pattern in which he would go about his daily routine and then see Erwin for a good ten to twenty minutes as they stood in Levi’s front doorway and talked about whatever was on the blonde’s mind that day. Levi learned that the blonde had been a mailman for some five years and had just recently changed routes with the old geezer who retired. He also learned that Erwin really loved the ocean, which made him happier than he would ever care to admit. Apparently the guy was a surfer on Sundays, when he didn’t have work he would go down to their closest surfing beach and spend the day there. Levi admitted to going down there on occasion as well, although his was for an entirely different reason. Not that the blonde fuck needed to know that. He also learned that Erwin loved reading for when Levi received that month’s copy of National Geographic, they spent a good thirty minutes standing on his porch and talking about the month’s issue previous that had been an exposee on South American indigenous tribes.

  
Erwin’s coming and going was as sure as the sunrise by the end of that first week, the guy had grown progressively less annoying the more that Levi got used to him and that smile of his. If anything, Levi might actually admit that he enjoyed spending time with the blonde and talking with him. After those first few days, he was able to remember how to speak to people without sounding like an awkward fuck all of the time. One week of lively conversation turned into two, then a month, a month and a half that he saw and spoke to this man every day, unless it was raining. In which case Levi would leave a note on his front door that read something along the lines of ‘Not here at the moment Erwin. Just leave the mail in the mailbox and have a good day.’ The notes were always gone when Levi went back later to get his mail and as promised, the mail was in his mailbox. Slowly his ability to have a decent conversation improved with all of the practice. That made things a lot easier whenever Erwin came by because Levi felt he wasn’t giving off the impression of a creepy guy who never leaves his house anymore. For the first time in a long time, he actually felt as if he was getting along with someone based on those small twenty minute interactions they had every day. They always ended the same, with Erwin bidding Levi goodbye and waving to him as he drove away. Some days he swore that Erwin’s smile was brighter than the sun when he came up that walkway, but then again it could have just been him thinking Erwin smiles an abnormal amount because he himself rarely smiled.

  
It was a Saturday when Levi was sitting in his window again, waiting for Erwin to stop by in his tacky truck and greet him with that broad smile. As per the usual, at five in the afternoon Erwin’s truck came into view and he was climbing in and out to grab the boxes of stuff Levi had ordered. They went through the motions of introductions and Levi signing that stupid little paper before Erwin handed him his mail, “..do you like fish?” The blonde inquires as he takes his mail, earning a raised eyebrow from the shorter of the two. Of course, Erwin nods towards the pile of mail in Levi’s hand, “-that looks a little fishy doesn’t it?” Because of the position of the mail by his side, Levi thought that the blonde was referring to his abdomen and for a panicked second he thought that perhaps he was beginning to change. Anxiety from years of being secretive made it impossible to do anything but snap at the blonde, “No it fucking doesn’t alright? Get out of here-” before slamming the door in the man’s face. As soon as that door was closed, Levi threw down his mail and began to lift up his shirt, looking over his abdomen in a panic to see a significant lack of scales. Surely if he had gotten wet, he would have been changing by now but his two legs were in his jeans, his abdomen was free of his scales. Slowly did he come back down from his anxious state, but with a clearer mind he couldn’t help but wonder what it was that Erwin had been referring to.

  
One look at the pile of mail on the floor held the answer to his question for the first magazine on top of his stack was Fish Weekly, a magazine that documented the changing fish populations and migration patterns as well as different aspects of the sea that a merman would need to know if he wanted to head to the sea. The first thing to settle in after realizing that Smith had only been talking about the magazine, with a giant ass fish on the front cover, was guilt. The guy had just been making a terrible pun after all instead of commenting on Levi’s genetic ability to change into a merman. Fuck. What made him feel even worse was that the following day was a Sunday, meaning that he wouldn’t see Erwin until the day after when he delivered the mail and he couldn’t even begin to apologize for being an asshole until then. For the night, he consoled himself with a bottle of wine and the knowledge that he would be able to see that shining smile, if the fucker would even smile at him anymore, on Monday. But the weather wasn’t cooperating with him for that Sunday evening was the beginning of a set of storms rolling through their city for the next week. Levi knew that with those kinds of storms and the erratic wind and rain they produced, he couldn’t go outside until late at night. That would be when no one was around to see him transform while getting his mail.

  
The weather didn’t deviate one bit from the predicted rainfall, but this time around Levi didn’t leave notes on his door. What would he make them say anyways? ‘Sorry for being such an asshole and freaking out. I Promise I’m not that much of a psycho.’ That wasn’t something he really wanted to have on his door. It would be shitty of him to just do that anyways instead of apologizing face to face, Erwin deserved that much. But the rain wasn’t letting up, keeping Levi trapped in his house where the only thing that could distract him from the fact that he had yelled at the only guy he talked to on a daily basis, was his work. He worked tirelessly to keep himself distracted from the fact that he’d been a complete asshole. At times, by force of habit, he would take a break around five in the afternoon, only to see the tacky truck driving away from his front window. Or some days Snowball would sit in the front window, showing off her new sweater to Erwin as he brought the mail. But other than snowball, the only sign of life in that house was the occasional flicker of lights that indicated Levi was at least alive.

  
The rain lasted into the weekend and of course the only day that it let up, was Sunday. Levi couldn’t even go pick up his fucking mail from the post office or his boxes let alone talk to the blonde. The rains began again on Monday and were set to last another week. Levi was entirely sure that someone was punishing him for something he did previously because not being able to talk to someone after nearly two months of seeing them everyday, was torturous. It was that following Wednesday that Levi just couldn’t handle the stress of sitting around and feeling the guilt weigh down on his chest as he watched Erwin secretly from his bedroom window. He always did the same thing when Levi wasn’t there to answer the door. He’d knock, wave towards Snowball in the window, knock again, and then sigh. It seemed that smile did fade away after that first week for he didn’t smile so much when approaching Levi’s front door. But on that rainy Wednesday, Levi couldn’t handle the visual of seeing a disappointed or frowning Smith. So he decided to calm his fried nerves, it would be best if he took a peaceful bath with the lavender salt he’d gotten some weeks ago and a bottle of wine by his tub. That was how he spent the better part of an hour, sitting in his tub and downing the bottle of wine until he knew it was time to get out because Snowball had come to find him to harass him. With a sigh, he hauls himself up and out of the tub, earning a particularly loud thump from his floor since he had managed to land on the tiles more so than the towels laid out. “Ouch, fuck-” He mutters, rubbing the bottom of his tail where he had very literally fallen on his ass from where he had been in the tub. He was so distracted by drying off his abdomen and the top of his tail that he didn’t notice his front door open over the sounds of the rain or the jingle of Snowball’s bell. He didn’t actually notice anything until he could hear someone coming up the stairs, a loud creak of his middle stair alerted him to the sounds, followed by a familiar “Levi?” It was undoubtedly Erwin, but the question was what the fuck the guy was doing in his house.

  
The panic of knowing Erwin was in his house, made him attempt to haul himself towards the bathroom door to close it, that way the blonde couldn’t see his shining silver scales and his natural form. All that accomplished, was Levi knocking over his half full glass of red wine, breaking the glass beside him and sending red wine all over the floor beside him. Thus, when Erwin finally made it up the stairs and was able to see into the bathroom he was greeted with quite the sight. If anything, he hadn’t expected to find a merman laying in Levi’s bathroom and bleeding onto the floor beside him. Of course, the proper response was to faint and that was exactly what Erwin Smith did, still adorned in his work outfit. He collapsed at the top of the stairs, his large body making a loud thud and making both Levi and Snowball jump. Although the cat seemed more excited by it for she immediately went over to lay on his chest and make herself comfortable on the human sized pillow now there for her convenience. Thus, leaving Levi, still soaking wet and surrounded by glass and wine as a fucking half fish. “Fucking great.”


End file.
